We are interested in exploring the history of African Americans in the United States using the available census data. To do this, I have used the ‘Get Your Data’ Shiny tool to find three different .csv files relating to the population of African Americans in U.S. states. There are three different files because the census uses different words to refer to African Americans at different points in history. Because of these changes, one file contains variable names that use the term ‘slave’, one file contains variable names that use the term ‘colored’, and the third contains variable names that use the term ‘negro’. These files are in the ‘inst’ folder in statatlas.

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830

1840

1850

Since we are in 1850 now, and many states have abolished slavery at this point, it may be interesting to look at just total population. Even though we can look at comparing the number of slaves in all the states and the number of free persons in all the states, we haven’t looked at just a total count of how many African Americans live in various states.

1860

##       Year         State           TOTAL.POPULATION      SLAVES    
##  Min.   :1860   Length:8737        Min.   :   6857   Min.   : NA   
##  1st Qu.:1860   Class :character   1st Qu.: 604215   1st Qu.: NA   
##  Median :1860   Mode  :character   Median : 708002   Median : NA   
##  Mean   :1860                      Mean   : 923076   Mean   :NaN   
##  3rd Qu.:1860                      3rd Qu.:1109801   3rd Qu.: NA   
##  Max.   :1860                      Max.   :3880735   Max.   : NA   
##                                                      NA's   :8737  
##      Type           FEMALE.SLAVES   MALES.SLAVES   TOTAL.SLAVES 
##  Length:8737        Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA   
##  Class :character   1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA   
##  Mode  :character   Median : NA    Median : NA    Median : NA   
##                     Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN   
##                     3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA   
##                     Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA   
##                     NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737  
##  TOTAL.FEMALE.SLAVES TOTAL.MALE.SLAVES  AGGR..SLAVES    FREE.COLORED.MALES
##  Min.   :     2      Min.   :     0    Min.   :     2   Min.   : NA       
##  1st Qu.: 42876      1st Qu.: 44313    1st Qu.: 87189   1st Qu.: NA       
##  Median :139349      Median :136370    Median :275719   Median : NA       
##  Mean   :122953      Mean   :125597    Mean   :248550   Mean   :NaN       
##  3rd Qu.:164590      3rd Qu.:171977    3rd Qu.:331726   3rd Qu.: NA       
##  Max.   :241382      Max.   :249483    Max.   :490865   Max.   : NA       
##  NA's   :3021        NA's   :3021      NA's   :3021     NA's   :8737      
##  FREE.COLORED.FEMALES TOTAL.FREE.COLORED.PERSONS
##  Min.   : NA          Min.   : NA               
##  1st Qu.: NA          1st Qu.: NA               
##  Median : NA          Median : NA               
##  Mean   :NaN          Mean   :NaN               
##  3rd Qu.: NA          3rd Qu.: NA               
##  Max.   : NA          Max.   : NA               
##  NA's   :8737         NA's   :8737              
##  TOTAL.FREE.COLORED.FEMALES TOTAL.FREE.COLORED.MALES
##  Min.   :   10              Min.   :   35           
##  1st Qu.:  478              1st Qu.:  454           
##  Median : 3232              Median : 3567           
##  Mean   : 8256              Mean   : 7529           
##  3rd Qu.:10368              3rd Qu.: 8279           
##  Max.   :44196              Max.   :39746           
##                                                     
##  TOTAL.FREE.COLORED.POPULATION WHITE.AND.FREE.COLORED.FAMILIES
##  Min.   : NA                   Min.   : NA                    
##  1st Qu.: NA                   1st Qu.: NA                    
##  Median : NA                   Median : NA                    
##  Mean   :NaN                   Mean   :NaN                    
##  3rd Qu.: NA                   3rd Qu.: NA                    
##  Max.   : NA                   Max.   : NA                    
##  NA's   :8737                  NA's   :8737                   
##  COLORED.PERSONS COLORED.MALES  COLORED.FEMALES TOTAL.COLORED.FEMALES
##  Min.   : NA     Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA     Min.   : NA          
##  1st Qu.: NA     1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA     1st Qu.: NA          
##  Median : NA     Median : NA    Median : NA     Median : NA          
##  Mean   :NaN     Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN     Mean   :NaN          
##  3rd Qu.: NA     3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA     3rd Qu.: NA          
##  Max.   : NA     Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA     Max.   : NA          
##  NA's   :8737    NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737    NA's   :8737         
##  TOTAL.COLORED.MALES NEGRO.POPULATION..1870 NEGRO.POPULATION..1880
##  Min.   : NA         Min.   : NA            Min.   : NA           
##  1st Qu.: NA         1st Qu.: NA            1st Qu.: NA           
##  Median : NA         Median : NA            Median : NA           
##  Mean   :NaN         Mean   :NaN            Mean   :NaN           
##  3rd Qu.: NA         3rd Qu.: NA            3rd Qu.: NA           
##  Max.   : NA         Max.   : NA            Max.   : NA           
##  NA's   :8737        NA's   :8737           NA's   :8737          
##  NEGRO.FEMALES   NEGRO.MALES   TOTAL.NEGROES  FEMALE.NEGROES
##  Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA   
##  1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA   
##  Median : NA    Median : NA    Median : NA    Median : NA   
##  Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN   
##  3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA   
##  Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA   
##  NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737  
##   MALE.NEGROES     NEGROES          long              lat       
##  Min.   : NA    Min.   : NA    Min.   :-124.57   Min.   :24.55  
##  1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: NA    1st Qu.: -89.51   1st Qu.:30.04  
##  Median : NA    Median : NA    Median : -84.67   Median :36.50  
##  Mean   :NaN    Mean   :NaN    Mean   : -85.64   Mean   :35.97  
##  3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: NA    3rd Qu.: -79.09   3rd Qu.:40.98  
##  Max.   : NA    Max.   : NA    Max.   : -66.95   Max.   :49.38  
##  NA's   :8737   NA's   :8737   NA's   :3         NA's   :3      
##      order          hole             piece           id           
##  Min.   :    1   Mode :logical   1      :5450   Length:8737       
##  1st Qu.: 2193   FALSE:8734      2      : 337   Class :character  
##  Median : 4682   NA's :3         3      : 120   Mode  :character  
##  Mean   : 4802                   6      : 102                     
##  3rd Qu.: 7379                   4      :  93                     
##  Max.   :10399                   (Other):2632                     
##  NA's   :3                       NA's   :   3                     
##               group     
##  Florida.1       : 315  
##  Texas.1         : 312  
##  Virginia.1      : 297  
##  North Carolina.1: 283  
##  Georgia.1       : 250  
##  (Other)         :7277  
##  NA's            :   3

Again, since we are getting to the point where many states are completely free states, it may be interesting to look at just total numbers of African Americans. Being able to see how the African American population shifts around in states as slavery becomes abolished in certain areas - and soon after, in all states - tells us an interesting story as well.